Hello. Newbie here. I'm trying to get a Vizio VP50HDTV10A working. This is a little long but I wanted to be detailed.
Background on the TV: – FREE - from Craigslist, so the only thing I have at stake here are time and materials. I answered an ad and picked it up from a young professional male, 20 minute drive each way, who told me it stopped turning on. As soon as I got home I opened the back and noticed 10 popped capacitors on the power supply board right away. At that point I think, woo-hoo, this might be easy. I did not bother plug the unit in at the time because with all those bad caps I thought it wouldn't do much if I did, and it was 10pm and I did not want to get started on anything and wind up awake at 2am working on it. I'll put pictures of some of the obviously bad capacitors. [Popped 1, Popped 2, and Popped 3]
Quick Background on me: Amateur Mr Fix-It. I have a soldering iron, a solder sucker, a cheap multi-meter.... and I'm not afraid to use them.
I got started in this by figuring out how to fix a tv about three months ago when my neighbor's 2008 Samsung LCD stopped turning on. He just went and bought a new HDTV and then gave me that “old” Samsung to tinker with. A Google search, a youtube video, a trip to an electronics parts store, and 4 capacitors later I had a working like new LCD tv. (Gave it to a different, needy neighbor who did not have a high def tv.) That success peaked my interest. Later, I got stumped on an early Pioneer Plasma (pre-hdmi) but redeemed myself repairing a Polaroid 32” LCD. (Sold it for $100 bucks on Craigslist) Now I have this Vizio that is actually a very nice, big 50” plasma that I'd really like to keep alive on this earth (And keep period!) for several more years before the recycle company gets it.
Back to the Vizio VP50HDTV10A at hand: The next day I looked to find the popped caps were 9 Samwha 3300uf 10V and one Samwha 1000uf 10V. I went to my local electronics store and they had a 1000uf 10V in stock and only 4 of the 3300uf's I needed so I skipped those and ordered them all online because they're cheaper that way, and I'd have had to order some of them so I might as well order all of them. I ordered a brand I read was a good one on a couple websites. What I got is Rubycon 3300uf 16V (instead of the 10V) from a supplier (not ebay!) as a replacement because I heard that higher voltage is better as long as they uf is the same and they fit in the location. AND, they were on sale for 59 cents each. Now, come to find out what I ordered was PK series which are not low ESR. I had not heard of ESR when I'd ordered them. I'd heard of ripple current, of which the 16V caps were higher in so I am thinking that is better, but I did not know of ESR. * I had not been to badcaps *
I am thinking here that ESR will relate to the life of the capacitors in this application and that having 16V in place of the 10 might help in that area as well. Whatever the case, I am hoping the caps I got will work for a while at least. This would allow me to move forward and replace those caps with the proper ones later.
I put the 10 new capacitors on the power supply board in and plugged in the TV. There was immediately a fast double click followed a few seconds later by one more click. Then I pressed the power button and there was the same quick double click and a faint buzzing.... but no image when I pressed the menu button.
Now that there was at least some power I could get the multimeter out and see where to go from here.
Lable says:
Va 59V
Vs 193V
Measured at the various pin out locations on the power supply board
Va 64V
Vs 179.5V
I tried to use the adjustment “screw” to increase the Vs to closer to spec but in ¼ turn (at what appears to be “max”) there was a pop like a circuit breaker not a pop like a blown something and everything went dead. I turned the adjuster back and unplugged and then plugged back in the power and it was back to the same start up. I tried the adjuster one more time with the same result and again, unplugging re-set whatever it was and I did not touch the adjustment any further. I re measured the Vs's and got the same numbers.
I turned on the set and left it for ten minuted and touched the heat sinks. I'll post a picture [WarmCool1] with the results. Orange is noticeably warm, blue is noticeably still cool, and blue+orange is not noticeably either.
There is a small board with 4 led's that light up differently then end up with alternate lights lit. I'll put a picture. [Lights1]
Service manual was easily found on line, but some of what it talks about I personally cant necessarily locate what they are referring to on the unit. Doesn't mean it's not there, just I'm not getting it.
So, where do I go from here? If you need pics of something just let me know. If I need to test something, I need a quick basic lesson how to do it, or to be pointed in the right direction to find out.
A thanks to you all in advance for your help.
Background on the TV: – FREE - from Craigslist, so the only thing I have at stake here are time and materials. I answered an ad and picked it up from a young professional male, 20 minute drive each way, who told me it stopped turning on. As soon as I got home I opened the back and noticed 10 popped capacitors on the power supply board right away. At that point I think, woo-hoo, this might be easy. I did not bother plug the unit in at the time because with all those bad caps I thought it wouldn't do much if I did, and it was 10pm and I did not want to get started on anything and wind up awake at 2am working on it. I'll put pictures of some of the obviously bad capacitors. [Popped 1, Popped 2, and Popped 3]
Quick Background on me: Amateur Mr Fix-It. I have a soldering iron, a solder sucker, a cheap multi-meter.... and I'm not afraid to use them.

Back to the Vizio VP50HDTV10A at hand: The next day I looked to find the popped caps were 9 Samwha 3300uf 10V and one Samwha 1000uf 10V. I went to my local electronics store and they had a 1000uf 10V in stock and only 4 of the 3300uf's I needed so I skipped those and ordered them all online because they're cheaper that way, and I'd have had to order some of them so I might as well order all of them. I ordered a brand I read was a good one on a couple websites. What I got is Rubycon 3300uf 16V (instead of the 10V) from a supplier (not ebay!) as a replacement because I heard that higher voltage is better as long as they uf is the same and they fit in the location. AND, they were on sale for 59 cents each. Now, come to find out what I ordered was PK series which are not low ESR. I had not heard of ESR when I'd ordered them. I'd heard of ripple current, of which the 16V caps were higher in so I am thinking that is better, but I did not know of ESR. * I had not been to badcaps *

I put the 10 new capacitors on the power supply board in and plugged in the TV. There was immediately a fast double click followed a few seconds later by one more click. Then I pressed the power button and there was the same quick double click and a faint buzzing.... but no image when I pressed the menu button.
Now that there was at least some power I could get the multimeter out and see where to go from here.
Lable says:
Va 59V
Vs 193V
Measured at the various pin out locations on the power supply board
Va 64V
Vs 179.5V
I tried to use the adjustment “screw” to increase the Vs to closer to spec but in ¼ turn (at what appears to be “max”) there was a pop like a circuit breaker not a pop like a blown something and everything went dead. I turned the adjuster back and unplugged and then plugged back in the power and it was back to the same start up. I tried the adjuster one more time with the same result and again, unplugging re-set whatever it was and I did not touch the adjustment any further. I re measured the Vs's and got the same numbers.
I turned on the set and left it for ten minuted and touched the heat sinks. I'll post a picture [WarmCool1] with the results. Orange is noticeably warm, blue is noticeably still cool, and blue+orange is not noticeably either.
There is a small board with 4 led's that light up differently then end up with alternate lights lit. I'll put a picture. [Lights1]
Service manual was easily found on line, but some of what it talks about I personally cant necessarily locate what they are referring to on the unit. Doesn't mean it's not there, just I'm not getting it.
So, where do I go from here? If you need pics of something just let me know. If I need to test something, I need a quick basic lesson how to do it, or to be pointed in the right direction to find out.
A thanks to you all in advance for your help.

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